Fogg gets to UCLA, and Arizona gets away

Jan. 27, 2011

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 1:17 p.m.

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UCLA's Joshua Smith is sandwiched between Arizona's Derrick Williams, left, and Jamelle Horne, right, in the first half of Thursday's game in Tucson, Ariz. Arizona won the game, 85-74. WILY LOW, ASSOCIATED PRESS

UCLA's Joshua Smith is sandwiched between Arizona's Derrick Williams, left, and Jamelle Horne, right, in the first half of Thursday's game in Tucson, Ariz. Arizona won the game, 85-74. WILY LOW, ASSOCIATED PRESS

TUCSON – On a night full of UCLA self-inflicted wounds in its 85-74 loss to Arizona on Thursday, none was as fatal as a thrown elbow. Like the Bruins' perimeter shooting, it didn't even connect.

In 20 seconds, thanks to six Fogg free throws, UCLA had gone from six to 12 points down ... and out.

"We just kind of faded away after that," UCLA guard Malcolm Lee said.

"I feel like we were ready to have a run anyway, but I think it was a big part in the game," said Fogg, a Brea Olinda High grad who finished with 14 points, including 12 free throws. "It got the crowd into it, too."

Arizona forward Derrick Williams made sure the McKale Arena crowd of 14,528 stayed in it. Williams finished with 22 points as Arizona (17-4, 6-2 Pac-10) secured sole possession of second place in the conference with a dominating second half in which the Wildcats exploited the Bruins' mismatch problems with Williams and UCLA lapses on both ends of the floor.

"We obviously didn't play the right way," said Bruins freshman center Joshua Smith, who finished with one rebound in his first game since suffering a head injury against Cal on Jan. 20.

UCLA (13-7, 5-3) committed 19 turnovers and watched Arizona shoot 60.9 percent from the field in the second half while going 2 of 15 from behind the 3-point arc on its own end.

Jones' elbow wasn't the only part of his game that was off-target. He finished scoreless, going 0 for 7 from the field and 0 for 2 from the line.

"Offensively and defensively, it was a terrible game," Jones said.

"UCLA' s 19 turnovers were big," Arizona coach Sean Miller said. "It's hard to win at home with that number of turnovers, and it's even harder to overcome that on the road."

Yet despite the turnovers and Smith & Co.'s matchup issues with the quicker Williams — "basically, I'm guarding a 3-man in the (NBA)," Smith said — UCLA at halftime was in a nationally televised game that had the feel of the storied Bruins-Wildcats battles of the 1980s and '90s.

"It definitely felt like a big game, being on ESPN, going for second place in the Pac-10," Fogg said.

And in the first half, Bruins forward Reeves Nelson rose to the occasion. Nelson had been questionable after spraining his left ankle against Stanford on Saturday, although he never doubted his participation.

"In the back of my mind I wasn't going to let them tell me I wasn't gong to play," Nelson said.

He was cleared Thursday morning by the UCLA medical staff and showed no sign of the injury in the opening half, going 7 of 7 from the field for 17 points in 16 minutes. Nelson finished with a game-high 24 points.

But Arizona turned a 38-33 lead at intermission into a 10-point gap just 36 seconds into the second half thanks to a Williams' 3-point jumper and a layup by forward Jesse Perry.

UCLA was trying to get back into the game when Fogg, who had just made two foul shots, got free on what seemed like an endless parade of Arizona fast breaks in the second half.

As Fogg went up for the lay-in he got tangled up with UCLA's Jones. As the pair separated, Jones flung an elbow toward Fogg.

"It was nothing against that player," Jones said of Fogg. "I was just trying to get him off of me. I apologized to him during the game. I didn't try to blatantly elbow him. We're cool."

But after a video review, Jones was charged with a technical foul, and Fogg was awarded four free throws.

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